Pink Floyd were the pied pipers of psychedelia, first in London and then around the world. From their earliest shows in 1966 at the Marquee Club's "Spontaneous Underground" and the UFO Club in London - ground zero for flower power in Europe - the foursome (originally Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright, with David Gilmour later replacing Barrett) grafted an art school sensibility onto a love of American R&B artists like Chuck Berry.

Though the band's musical philosophy was summed up by the song title, "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun," its iconic name had humble origins. Simply this, according to "A Very Irregular Head," Rob Chapman's biography of Barrett: "Syd had found references to two North Carolina bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, on a record sleeve. Both artists were obscure, even to blues scholars, and there is no evidence that Syd had actually heard recordings by either of them."

Since that unlikely beginning, millions of people around the world have fallen under the musical spell of Pink Floyd. The band's "Dark Side of the Moon" album sold 50 million copies and was on the Billboard charts for 743 weeks (more than 14 years). And, since there is only one Pink Floyd to go around — and with the deaths of founding members Barrett and Wright in recent years, they are down to two original members — the possibilities of actually getting to hear them live would seem practically nil.

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